'I was sickened by what I saw' - N. Charleston police chief on video of fatal shooting

Protesters carry signs at a rally in North Charleston, South Carolina April 8, 2015. (Reuters/Randall Hill) / Reuters

The chief of police for North Charleston, South Carolina, told reporters on Wednesday that he was “sickened” by video that surfaced this week of a local police officer fatally shooting an unarmed man eight times from behind.

“I have watched the
video and I was sickened by what I saw,” Chief Eddie
Driggers said at a press conference on Wednesday. “And I have
not watched it since.”

A day earlier, the New York Times released amateur video footage
showing a white police officer, 33-year-old Michael Slager,
firing eight shots on Saturday afternoon at an unarmed African
American suspect. The victim, 50-year-old Walter Scott, had
reportedly fled on foot from the cop moments earlier during a
routine traffic stop and then tried to take the officer’s stun
gun, according to police.

Footage captured on an eyewitness’s cell phone show Slager
shooting eight rounds as Scott fled, then handcuffing him at the
scene as he succumbed to his injuries.

Slager, an expectant father, was charged with murder on Tuesday.
Keith Summey, the mayor
of North Charleston, said Wednesday that the
officeris
“terminated and gone” from the police force.

Driggers and Summey both fielded questions during that
afternooon's press conference, but said that inquiries will be
handled by the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, or SLED,
which has taken over the investigation.

The brief press conference was interrupted repeatedly by
protesters, including at one point by a chant of “No justice,
no peace.”

Summey told attendees at Wednesday’s event that the North
Charleston Police Department has received a grant to purchase
over 100 body cameras and has since ordered them, as well as an
additional 150 devices “so that every officer that’s on the
street in uniform will have a body camera.”